Advocates say new laws may dampen youth vote

CHICAGO - Gone are the days when young voters weren't taken seriously. In 2008, they helped propel Barack Obama into the Oval Office, supporting him by a 2-1 margin.

But that higher profile also has landed them in the middle of the debate over some state laws that regulate voter registration and how people identify themselves at the polls.

Since the last election, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Wisconsin and Texas and other states have tried to limit or ban the use of student IDs as voter identification.

Proponents of voter ID and registration laws say the laws are intended to combat voter fraud. The intent, they say, is to make sure people who are voting are who they say they are and have the right to vote.

Others see these efforts as attempts to squelch the aspirations of the budding young voting bloc and other groups, and they're using that claim to try to get more young people fired up.

"You think your vote doesn't matter? Then why are they trying so hard to take it away from you?" asks Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote, a group that works to register young voters.

Smith notes that it's not just an issue for college students.

She was teaching a civics class for graduating seniors at an inner-city high school in Philadelphia this spring and asked how many among them had driver's licenses that could be used, if the Pennsylvania law requiring a photo ID to vote were to survive the legal challenge.

Only two students in the room of 200 raised a hand; few of the students had cars.

These are the sort of stories that have led some students to get involved, particularly on college campuses.

In Florida, Rock The Vote joined with the League of Women Voters to challenge restrictions on "third-party" voter registration. A federal judge said last spring that many of the restrictions made it too difficult for legitimate voter registration organizations to do their work.

In Pennsylvania, when lawmakers there were proposing the voter ID law, 22-year-old Adam Boyer was among students who asked them to reconsider an outright ban on the use of student IDs.

"I'd like to think that the proponents of this law weren't trying to disenfranchise certain demographics. I hope it was an oversight on their part, and I think that was the case," says Boyer.

Pennsylvania lawmakers decided to allow "valid" student IDs, meaning they had to have expiration dates. But most colleges and universities in Pennsylvania didn't have such dates on their IDs.

So students and other groups that advocate for them have been working with universities in Pennsylvania and states such as Wisconsin to add them. A state judge struck down Wisconsin's voter ID law; that ruling is being appealed.

New IDs at institutions such as Penn State, for instance, now have expiration dates. Returning students also can get an expiration sticker to put on their IDs, a common plan at schools that are addressing the ID issue.

Joel Weidner, a Penn State official, says the school is most concerned about out-of-state students who might rely on a student ID to vote if they don't have a Pennsylvania driver's license. Of the 80,000 Penn State students on campuses statewide, he estimates that about 10,000 are from other states.

But in many instances, returning students still have to be aware that they need the expiration sticker and know where to get one.

Voter ID and registration aren't the only voting issues on campuses.

Long lines and a lack of polling places have been problems for students in past elections, particularly in 2008. So some universities are trying to get polling places on campus. Arizona State is among those that recently approached election officials and got one.

In Ohio, student groups are working with county officials to lengthen early voting.

All the rules, and the differences in them state to state and even county to county, can create a lot of confusion for young voters, some of whom are voting for the first time.

Right now, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Indiana and Georgia are among states with voter ID requirements in place. Tennessee is the only state that bans use of any student ID. Wisconsin, Texas, South Carolina and Virginia are among states where voter ID laws are on hold because of legal challenges.